Money/finances is a major hurdle during the athletic recruiting process. What should I do so that it doesn’t hurt me for a scholarship?

I have talked about this frequently over the last few months so there is little doubt that the economy has put families in a pinch over the last year.  This may include family members being laid off or having to find new jobs.  So when money is tight within a family, there is no doubt that it will also factor into the recruiting process of the children if they are at that stage.

So what should you do if the economy has negatively affected your family and you must find a way to help yourself in the eyes of college coaches but do it on a tight budget?  Here are some thoughts about this and it includes travel, making a recruiting highlight video, and more.  For this situation, I am going to go with a worse case scenario where money is a major factor in all walks of life at this point.

Putting together a recruiting profile
I would say there are two different options here to save money.  The first is to try a program like Open Office, which is a free, open source competitor of Microsoft Office.  It may take a while to get used to but it has all the majority of the same features as Microsoft Office (click here for the link to their website).  When you finish the project, make sure that you have it in a format that is easily readable.  My preference would be for you to make it into a PDF file to send out to college coaches.

The second option is to use the school/library and build it on a computer there.  These computers should be loaded with Microsoft programs or something that can help you put together this profile.  Make sure to save it to a flashdrive or burn it to a CD so you can have it later for sending it out.

Sending out your recruiting profile
Even if your budget is so tight that your family may no longer have Internet in home, you can use the library to send out the profile.  Make sure to look ahead if reservations are needed so that you can reserve a block of time to send out the profiles and research the schools.  The last thing you want to feel is a time crunch when researching schools and sending these out.

Putting together a highlight video
If you have the abilities and skills needed to do it, then go ahead and get going on.  The second option would be a coach at the high school.  This will save you a good chunk of change if they have the ability to put together the highlight video for you.  If you go to a bigger school, speak with the media specialist at the school and see what options are available.  Make sure to explain to them the situation and see if they can help.

Make sure to accept money/gifts/cars offered by the coaches recruiting you
This is a joke and an obvious NCAA violation.  I would never condone this or approve it at all.  Coaches wouldn’t do this either, right?

Posting your video highlights online
There are a number of free sites that allow you to post video without being charged.  Look into BeRecruited, Youtube, and a variety of others.  Getting this video online free is a great way to be able to send links to college coaches quickly.  This is definitely worth doing no matter how much money you can spend on the athletic recruiting process.  Posting these highlights and video online makes it cheaper to send to college coaches.  Instead of having to go through the postal service, you can just send a link to your profile.

Visiting colleges
This one may be a little big harder.  The first thing that you need to look into is carpooling.  Are there any other athletes in your area that are being recruited by the same schools?  Try to hitch a ride with them if possible.  If the answer is no, see if there are any relatives that can drive you to visits.  In return, offer them one of your three tickets to the sporting event that day.  Many will jump at that chance because a drive to the college is usually much cheaper than buying a ticket.  If you are a senior and receiving serious scholarship interest, take up schools and use their official visits.  These are paid for so it makes it easy.

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